Undergraduate Advising

Before Contacting an Advisor, Read the Following:

  • If you are inquiring about an English R1A or R1B course, please read the R1A or R1B policy overview before you email an English Major Advisor.
  • Fall 2024 First-Year (Freshman), Make sure to watch our New Student Presentation for English majors if you weren't able to attend to learn more about the major, transfer articulated courses and answers to your English major questions.

Email:

To email an advisor, you may email english_advising@berkeley.edu. All UMAs check this email consistently Monday-Fridays.

Appointments and Drop-In Advising:

To schedule an appointment with an English Undergraduate Major Advisor, go to CalCentral. If you are not sure how to schedule an appointment, view the helpful Booking an Advising Appointment guide. 

To view our drop-in hours hosted by Undergraduate Major Advisors and Peer Advisors, visit our drop-in advising hour calendar. 

Undergraduate Major Advisors:

Chloe Vreeland: Scheduled appointments can be attended by this Zoom link. Upcoming Vacation: July 4-12

Jacki Valadez: Scheduled appointments can be attended by this Zoom link.

Emily Cardoza: Scheduled appointments can be attended by this Zoom link.

In-person appointments will resume Fall 2024.

Peer Advisors

Peer Advisors share their knowledge of and experiences with English major courses, extracurriculars and student groups and campus resources. For specific degree requirements/degree checks, please book an appointment with Chloe or Jacki. Peer Advisors are unavailable during campus official holidays/breaks. Peer Advisors are available for more general questions.

Topics you can get help with through Peer Advising?

  • Help with using Assist.org for transfer courses
  • Assist with choosing classes to declare major or to complete major requirements
  • Support navigating which campus office to contact with questions
  • Guidance in whether to make an appointment with advising staff

Mia Rose Basulto: miabasulto@berkeley.edu

Faculty Major Advisor and Director of Undergraduate Studies

What are the differences between the Faculty Major Advisor (FMA), the Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS), and the Undergraduate Major Advisors (UMA)? Good question, and here some answers:

The Undergraduate Major Advisors are here to help you with the rules and requirements of the English major and minor: only the UMAs have access to the student systems that carry out the technical and administrative processing of your records. The UMAs are the people you must go to in order to declare the major officially. You should also go to them for help with articulating community college courses, petitioning to transfer courses from other departments or schools, and questions about department deadlines and schedules.

The Faculty Major Advisor is here for different reasons and needs that you may have. The FMA can serve as an intellectual mentor for the academic year. What being an “intellectual mentor” means is that the FMA is happy to talk with you about your intellectual interests, classes that fulfill or supplement those interests, academic and curricular choices more generally, possible study after college—and more. If you have a question that the FMA cannot answer, they can usually refer you to another source. Particularly if you have not already found a faculty mentor from among the teachers of your classes—but even if you have—please feel free to contact and visit the FMA for their expert guidance.

For the academic year of 2023-2024, the department’s FMA is Andrew Way Leong (andrew_leong@berkeley.edu). His office hours will be available at the beginning of the fall term.

The Director of Undergraduate Studies, Kathleen Donegan (english_dus@berkeley.edu), welcomes you to the department and is here to discuss the same issues as the FMA and to offer you similar sorts of guidance. In addition, like the UMAs, the DUS can answer the questions you have about the details and requirements of the major or minor (but she cannot process your electronic records). She makes the decisions on student petitions for transferring courses from other departments and schools and can therefore advise you on that subject. Finally, the DUS can also talk to you about the department course offerings for the current academic year and possibly the next. Students are encouraged to drop in on her office hours, email her for an appointment, or ask questions by email.